Battery cages remain common globally despite welfare bans in many regions. Understanding the welfare science behind cage systems helps consumers and advocates drive improvement.
Battery cage confinement represents one of the most extreme welfare deprivations in animal agriculture at scale. Hens spend their entire productive lives unable to walk, spread their wings, or perform fundamental behaviors including dustbathing, nesting, and perching. The chronic frustration of these motivations in billions of birds represents an enormous scale of preventable suffering. Transitioning to cage-free requires managing different welfare challenges but provides substantially better welfare outcomes on most behavioral and physiological measures. Consumer and legislative pressure have driven significant progress, but the global majority of hens remain caged.